Technova

Keystroke Biometrics:
SMART WAY OF AUTHENTICATION

Authors:
Prashant Saxena
MBA-IT

Biometrics (ancient Greek: bios ="life", metron ="measure") is an automated method of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. The modern rapid advancements in networking, communication and mobility increased the need of reliable ways to verify the identity of any person.

 

Biometric system converts data derived from behavioral or physiological characteristics into templates, which are used for subsequent matching. It is basically a multi-stage process. The stages are described below:

·         Enrollment – it is the process in which a user's initial biometric sample or samples are collected, assessed, processed, and stored for ongoing use in a biometric system. This enrollment process takes place in both 1:1 and 1: N systems. If users are experiencing problems with a biometric system, they may need to re-enroll to gather higher quality data.

  • Submission – it is the process in which a user provides behavioral or physiological data in the form of biometric samples to a biometric system.
  • Acquisition device - The hardware used to acquire biometric samples. The following acquisition devices are associated with each biometric technology:

Technology

Acquisition Device

Fingerprint

Desktop peripheral, PCMCIA card, mouse, chip or reader embedded in keyboard

Facial recognition

Video camera, PC camera, single-image camera

Hand geometry

Proprietary wall-mounted unit

Iris recognition

Infrared-enabled video camera, PC camera

Retina-scan

Proprietary desktop or wall-mountable unit

Voice verification

Microphone, telephone

Signature verification

Signature tablet, motion-sensitive stylus

Keystroke dynamics

Keyboard or keypad

 

In keystroke biometrics, we use the manner and rhythm in which an individual types characters on a keyboard or keypad. The keystroke rhythms are measured to develop a unique biometric template of the typing pattern of the user for future authentication. The recorded keystroke timing data is then processed through a unique neural algorithm, which determines a primary pattern for future comparison.

 

The distinctive, behavioral characteristics measured by Keystroke Recognition include:

  1. The cumulative typing speed;
  2. The time for which each key is held down;
  3. The time that elapses between consecutive keystrokes;
  4. The frequency of the individual in using other keys on the keyboard, such as the number pad or function keys;

In comparison to the other biometric technologies, Keystroke biometrics is probably of the easiest to implement and administer. This is so because at the present time, Keystroke Recognition is completely a software-based solution. There is no need to install any new hardware. All that needed is the existing computer and keyboard that the individual is currently using.